CH. VIII.] PLAN FOR INVADING CANADA necessity of enlisting. The whole number of regulars at the opening of the war scarcely amounted to five thousand men, and these were scattered over a vast surface of country. The president was empowered to receive fifty thousand volunteers, and to call out one hundred thousand militia; but these, always unreliable, and though sometimes fighting with wonderful bravery, subject to sudden panics, were no match for the disciplined troops of the enemy, and would prove serviceable mainly in defending the sea-coast and the frontier. And, in addition to all this, several of the state authorities were not disposed to submit to the president's demand for the militia in the existing condition of things, as we shall see further on. 157 it was confidently expected, that they would be able to sweep every thing before them, and in a short time plant the standard of the Union on the walls of Montreal. Had General Hull been the right man, and had he been properly furnished and supported by executive ability at Washington, this expectation of the country at large might have been gratified. About the middle of June, Hull left Dayton in Ohio, with the forces under his command, Colonels M'Arthur, Cass, and Findlay being at the head of the three regiments of Ohio volunteers. Passing through Stanton and Urbanna, the army were compelled, in traversing the uncultivated regions between the latter place and the Rapids of the Maumee, (about a hundred and fifty miles,) to remove obstructions, and make their own road. Having built four blockhouses, and garrisoned them with the disabled, they reached the Rapids on the 30th of June. On the 26th, four days previous, General Hull had received by express, a letter from Dr. Eustis, the secretary of war, written on the morning of the day on which the declaration of war was made. By some strange carelessness, this letter merely reiterated former orders, and contained expressions which seemed to show that war would soon be declared. Expecting to be informed, by express, when the declaration actually took place, and not imagining such a thing as that the British could be in Some time before the declaration of war, the invasion of Canada had been determined upon. This was indeed the only aggressive movement which could be made, and very sanguine hopes of success were entertained by the administration; for, it was argued, if 1812. the United States had overcome England with a population less than half its present number, surely now they would be able to expel them from America altogether. The attack was to be begun by General Hull, governor of Michigan Territory, and commander of the north-western army, as it was termed. His force consisted of between five huudred and a thousand regulars, and some two thousand militia from Ohio. With these, the army of the centre, consist-possession of such important ining of about two thousand regulars and over two thousand militia, was to cooperate on the Niagara frontier; and 1812. telligence earlier than himself, Hull, for the purpose of disencumbering his army, and facilitating their march, hired a vessel, which had sailed as a packet, to convey to Detroit, his sick, his hospital stores, and a considerable part of his baggage. This vessel, which sailed on the 1st of July, fell into the hands of the British near Malden, who had been two or three days in possession of the information that war was declared. With Hull's private baggage, his aid-de-camp unfortunately had placed on board the vessel a trunk of official and confidential papers, by means of which the enemy obtained possession of his correspondence with the government and the returns of his officers, thus having disclosed to them the number and condition of Hull's troops. The letter from the secretary of war, dated June 18th, containing the important information of the declaration of war, was received on the 2d of July. To our astonishment, we learn that this letter was entrusted to the ordinary course of the mail, as if it were a matter of very small consequence! Hull was on his march at the time, and on the 5th of July, encamped at Spring Wells, opposite Sandwich and within a few miles of Detroit. Three or four days were spent in rest and refreshment, and, having entered Detroit, in considering what next should be done. The army as a body, were eager to enter upon the work laid out for them, and were confident of success in invading Canada. On the 9th of July, Hull received dispatches from the secretary of war, authorizing him to commence offensive operations if he judged best; upon which, yielding to the wishes of the officers and troops, he crossed the His river on the 12th, took possession of the village of Sandwich, and issued a boldly-worded proclamation to the inhabitants of the province. He had come, he told them, to set all who desired liberty, free from the tyranny and injustice of Great Britain, and he would charge himself with their protection; but he would exterminate the British forces, if they employed Indians in the war; his force was sufficient to break down all opposition, and it was but the forerunner of a much larger one. deeds, however, did not correspond to his words. Now was the moment to push forward to the attack of Malden, or Amherstberg, an important fortress held by the British, on the Detroit River, near its entrance into Lake Erie. It was garrisoned by some six hundred men, under Colonel St. George, and had Hull acted with promptitude and spirit, would no doubt have yielded to the American arms. The commander hesitated, and wavered, and thought it best to wait for the getting his heavy artillery in readiness, and so the precious opportunity slipped away. Instead of attacking Malden, or liberating Canada, he remained, week after week, in a state of inactivity as mortifying as it was inexplicable, not doing a single thing to justify either the invitations or the menaces of his proclamation; so that whatever ardor had fired his troops was cooled greatly, and distrust and contempt expelled confidence and attachment from the hearts of the Canadians. The enemy meanwhile were not idle. Malden was reinforced; the supplies were almost entirely cut off; and Hull was get 1812 CH. VIII.] MACKINAW TAKEN BY THE BRITISH. ting deeper and deeper into the "slough of despond." News reached him near News reached him near the end of the month, that Mackinaw had fallen into the hands of the enemy, who were thus put in possession of one of the strongest posts in the country. It had been attacked on the 17th of July, by a party of British and Indians, principally the latter, amounting in the whole to one thousand and twenty-four. Lieutenant Hanks, who commanded at this fort, had only fifty-seven men under his command; nor, though twelve days had elapsed since Hull's arrival at Detroit, had he been informed of the declaration of war. The summons to surrender was the first knowledge given to him that hostilities had broken out. On learning the strength of the enemy, Hanks capitulated, by the unanimous advice of his officers; stipulating, however, that his garrison should march out of the fort with the honors of war. Hull was panic-stricken at this news, and perceiving that the road was now open for Indian marauding excursions from the north-west, and fearing that he would be overwhelmed if he remained in Canada, he gave orders to retreat, just as the attack on Malden was to be made, and on the 8th of August ingloriously returned to Detroit. The British were not slow to avail themselves of the opening which Hull's conduct allowed. General Brock took command of the forces at Malden. The agents and others in the employ of the North-West Fur Company, furnished important assistance, especially in rousing the Indian tribes to join against the Americans; and Tecumseh, now a major-general in the British ser 159 vice, was sent to occupy the forest wilderness south of Detroit, and cut off all communication from its garrison. At the river Raisin, Tecumseh met and stopped a company of Ohio volunteers, under Captain Brush, who were hastening with supplies to join General Hull, whom they expected to find in Canada. Brush contrived to get word to Hull by means of a scout, and Major Vanhorne, with a hundred and fifty or two hundred men, was sent to open the road and escort Brush to Detroit. But falling into an Indian ambush, they were routed by less than half their number, and scarcely a hundred made their way back to the fort, the rest being killed, or dispersed. The Indians also captured Hull's dispatches, which were sent to Brock, and showed him the desponding condition of the American forces. News soon afterwards reached General Hull, that, in consequence of an armistice for a brief period between Sir George Prevost and General Dearborn, in which, however, Hull was not included, the British commander had an opportunity of directing his whole force against the army of the northwest; and further, that the promised co-operation on the Niagara frontier could not be depended on at all. In this state of affairs, Hull resolved to make another attempt to restore his communications with Ohio, and for that purpose directed Lieutenant-Colonel Miller, with six hundred men, to proceed to the Raisin, and to clear the woods of the savages there. But simultaneously with this movement, General Proctor, on the side of the enemy, had crossed over with all his force, some four or five hundred strong, to press the advantages gained by Tecumseh in that quarter. At Brown's Town, or Maguaga, about fourteen miles from Detroit, they found the Indians and the British strongly posted; but they gallantly advanced to the attack, and after a severe contest, compelled them to retreat. The enemy embarked under cover 1812. of their armed vessels, and returned to Malden; and Miller, having lost about eighty men, was soon after recalled to Detroit. On the 9th of August, Hull sent an order to Captain Heald to evacuate Chicago, where he was in command, and lead his force directly to Detroit. Heald set out on the 15th, with about seventy men, and some fifty friendly Indians, escorting several women and children. They were speedily attacked by the savages, amounting to about five hundred. More than half of his force having been killed, Captain Heald surrendered to Blackbird, a Pottawottamie chief. Captain Brush having informed Gen-ral Hull that he should endeavor to reach Detroit by a circuitous route, Colonels Cass and M'Arthur volunteered to go and meet him, in order to insure the safe arrival of the provisions. Taking three hundred and fifty men, they set out on the 13th of August; but, we are sorry to say, they were not successful; for the men lost their way in the trackless forest, and could not contrive either to pass or to round a morass; and therefore, having consumed all their stores, could only go back to Detroit, whither they had been summoned to return, (but the messengers were intercepted by the Indians,) and where they arrived too late to be of any service. General Brock, who had reached Malden on the 13th of August, recalled the expedition from the Raisin River, and on the 15th, erected batteries on the bank of the river opposite Detroit. The same day, he sent a flag summoning Hull to surrender, to which, answer was sent that the Americans were ready to encounter the foe. Brock immedi ately opened the batteries upon the town and fort, and did some execution. Hull appears now to have been seized with a terror that completely unmanned him, and his officers were so provoked by his vacillation and timidity, that, had Colonels Cass and M'Arthur been present, he would no doubt have been deprived of his command, and the disgraceful result which followed probably have been prevented. Early in the morning of the 16th of August, the British landed at Spring Wells, three miles below Detroit, and marched forward to the attack. Hull's force was drawn force was drawn up in battle-array outside the fort, the artillery was well planted, and the Americans had no fear of meeting the enemy; but when the British were about five hundred yards distant, the astounding command was given for the troops to retire within the fort! The scene which followed beggars description; and poor Hull, anxious only to escape anxious only to escape from his present pitiable condition, ordered a white flag to be hung out on the walls of the fort! Not a blow was struck, not a gun was С. VIII.] 1812. HULL'S SURRENDER AND DISGRACE. fired, not a word of consultation was had with his officers, not a single stipulation for the honor of his troops; but an unconditional giving up of all to the enemy. The fortress, the garrison, and munitions of war, the detachment under Cass and M'Arthur, and even the soldiers under Captain Brush, were included in the capitulation. Hull's only object seems to have been to escape * from the Indian scalping-knife. When he had first entered Canada, the British had at Malden but one hundred regular troops, four hundred Canadian militia, and a few hundred Indians. After General Brock's arrival, their whole force was three hundred and thirty regulars, four hundred militia, and six hundred Indians. Including those who were absent, the whole force surrendered by General Hull amounted to two thousand five hundred men, of whom twelve hundred were militia. Colonels Cass and M'Arthur, with their detachment, arrived in a halfstarving condition, just in time. to hear of the surrender, and they hoped to escape; but hunger compelled them to accede to the terins of the capitulation. Captain Brush, when he heard the news of the surrender from some Ohio militia, resolved to treat it with contempt; and so he marched his force back again to Ohio. The amazement and indignation of the whole country, at Hull's surrender, cannot adequately be depicted in words, and charges of not only cowardice and disgraceful inefficiency, but also of treason and collusion with the enemy were freely bestowed upon the unhappy general. His official report, under date of VOL. III.-21 161 1812. August 26th, was sent to Washington, and puts the best face upon the matter of which it is capable; but he was contradicted almost flatly in every thing material by Colonel Cass, in a letter to the secretary of war, under date of September 10th; and the name and reputation of General Hull sunk under the fearful explosion of wrath and disappointment which fell upon his devoted head. Few, if any, thought of the mitigation which existed in his behalf; of the inefficiency of the war department; the cutting off his supplies; the undisciplined troops under his command; the number and savage ferocity of the Indians in the British employ; etc. In the present connection, we may mention, that General Hull was tried by a court-martial, which assembled in January, and concluded its labors at the close of March, 1814.* Treason, cowardice, neglect of duty and un-officer-like conduct, were the charges against him. Of the first, he was acquitted; but was found guilty of the two latter, and was sentenced to be shot. The court, nevertheless, recommended him to the mended him to the mercy of the presi dent, in consequence of his advanced age and his revolutionary services. The president listened to this recommendation, and remitted the punishment of * Hull issued an address to the people of the United States, asking a suspension of judgment till his Vindi cation could be prepared. This was published in 1824,. and in 1848 his grandson gave to the public a large octavo volume, intended as a complete refutation of the charges against him. The reader may consult this volume to advantage, and he will probably come to the conclusion that General Hull was more severely dealt with than, all things considered, he rightly deserved. |
